


A Better Protagonist

by topofthechain



Category: Cravity (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:35:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27450574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/topofthechain/pseuds/topofthechain
Summary: Silence looms over them again, but not for long because Seongmin quickly remembers exactly how he’d lost the bookmark. “Listen, don’t you dare tell anyone what happened yesterday,” he warns, looking Taeyoung right in the eye now.“What?” Taeyoung blinks. “What am I not supposed to be telling anyone about?”“Wait...you didn’t see?” Seongmin’s jaw drops. “Okay, never mind then!” he exclaims. “You didn’t hear that!”
Relationships: Ahn Seongmin/Kim Taeyoung
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	A Better Protagonist

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this across 3 days. This was inspired by something slightly embarrassing that happened to me.

Seongmin rolls his eyes as the protagonist wins yet another battle easily. He hates characters who can do anything and are adored by everyone. Unfortunately for Seongmin, he must put up with this character for another hundred pages because he has to read this book for class.

Briskly walking down the familiar streets to the train station, Seongmin turns another page. He sighs when he spots a paragraph about the protagonist's love interest catching feelings for the protagonist just because he’s ‘cool’. Sure, the hero seems all great and mighty, but does one have to fall for them because of that? Seongmin doesn't think so.

The next chapter seems to be yet another boring one, and Seongmin is lost in his fury over the plot of this story. The teachers could have chosen any other book to study, but they just had to choose this one. He knows he’s not the only one who despises this book, so he will never understand why the teachers chose it.

Eyes trained on the book, he instinctively turns another corner, and walks right into the person in front of him, dropping his book in the process and making the person drop the box they were holding too. It wouldn’t be so terrifying if it wasn’t for the fact that this person is huge. Seongmin has never seen a taller and wider person with his own eyes. This person might as well be a door.

The giant turns, at a speed slower than those dramatic shots of suspense in the movies, and glares at him. Before he can say anything, Seongmin squeaks a quick “Sorry!” and flees, snatching his book off the floor and running faster than he ever did for his physical education classes.

It’s only when he gets on the train that Seongmin realises how foolish it was for him to do that. Logically, with so many people out there, he probably wouldn’t get beat up. Maybe viciously told off at most, but nothing else. Looking down at his school uniform, Seongmin can only hope that there wasn’t anyone from school there to see that.

His heart still pounding, Seongmin opens his book again, trying to find the page he’d last been reading. He finds it easily, because he still remembers what he’s read and what he hasn’t, but he soon realises that the bookmark he had made a few years ago isn’t in the book. Seongmin checks his pockets for the laminated piece of paper, but it’s not there. He must have dropped it while he was running or when he bumped into that humongous person. Seongmin groans in frustration. It was his most treasured bookmark too. Not wanting to get home late, he decides to leave it be. He can make a new one anyway.

* * *

By the time the morning lessons are over, Seongmin has finished reading the book. Both the protagonist and his now-girlfriend had absolutely no character development, and Seongmin is beyond disappointed. He’d rather read something about some of the side characters than this irksome guy.

Seongmin puts the book away and walks out of his classroom to grab some lunch. A few minutes have already passed since the bell rang for lunch, so there are hardly any queues now. Taking his tray of food, he scans the cafeteria to find a seat. Conveniently, Hyeongjun, a friend from the year above, appears to be eating alone today, so Seongmin starts to approach him.

Hyeongjun notices him and waves him over, gesturing at the seat in front of him.

“I was wondering where you were!” Hyeongjun exclaims after Seongmin sits down.

“Why?”

Hyeongjun leans in closer, and so Seongmin does the same. “I heard that Taeyoung has been asking people about you," Hyeongjun reveals, eyes wide.

“Taeyoung?” Seongmin scrunches his face up. “Kim Taeyoung from my year?” Right away, the face of the boy with the streak of rainbow hair pops into his head.

Hyeongjun nods. “Yeah, him.” Seongmin purses his lips when he hears this. Based on what Seongmin has heard about him, Taeyoung almost seems like that dreaded protagonist. His grades are above average, he’s highly athletic, seems to have friends in every class and is also good-looking. Most certainly some sort of protagonist material, at least.

“Why? Did I do something?” Seongmin finally picks up his chopsticks and starts eating his food, trying to distract himself.

“I don’t know,” Hyeongjun says, shrugging. “I just heard people in his class saying something about the two of you when I was at the club meeting just now.”

“Right, there was a meeting just now! How did it go?” Seongmin quickly asks, shoving more rice into his mouth.

Hyeongjun raises an eyebrow at the change in topic, but chooses not to question Seongmin about it, for which Seongmin is grateful. “The plan for the next newsletter was approved, so it would be great if you could start working on the drawings as soon as possible. Not much else was discussed, really, that’s why I’m already here.”

“Oh, that’s great, I’ll start soon,” Seongmin says. Not wanting the topic to go back to Taeyoung, he thinks of something else to talk about. “What about the colour scheme?”

“I think anything will do. As you know, we’re not doing something specific to anything this time so you can choose whatever you like.”

Seongmin nods. “Got it.”

“By the way, have you decided who you’re going to support in the student council president campaigns?” Hyeongjun asks.

“No, I haven’t thought about it one bit.”

“Well, we’re going to cover this topic in the newsletter, so you’ll have to think about it sooner or later,” Hyeongjun says teasingly.

“Who’s running this year?” Seongmin asks.

Hyeongjun proceeds to list all the candidates, but the only name which makes Seongmin’s ears twitch ever so slightly is “Kim Taeyoung”. That’s strange, aren’t this year’s candidates supposed to be in Hyeongjun’s year? He doesn’t ask, because he’d rather not hear more about Taeyoung.

Not long after he finishes telling Seongmin all the people who are going to be campaigning for the position, Hyeongjun snaps his fingers. “I got it! Taeyoung probably wants you to help him design his posters and stuff! It all makes sense now!”

“Why in the world would he ask me?” Seongmin asks, his face distorting into one of disgust. He can’t imagine himself designing campaign posters advertising someone he doesn’t know, let alone like.

“He must have seen your art at least somewhere, if not the newsletters then in basically any of our school’s art exhibitions. You’d have to be blind to not see Ahn Seongmin’s name anywhere,” Hyeongjun insists.

Seongmin sighs. Hyeongjun is right that almost the entire school is aware of his drawing skills. “I’m going to have to say no if he asks me, though.”

“Why not? I think it’ll be fun. I don’t think he’s as bad as you seem to think, he gets along well with basically everyone, from what I’ve seen.”

Seongmin frowns slightly. “I’m not sure I can communicate with him well. He reminds me of the protagonist of that novel I told you about last night.”

“Well, you never know,” Hyeongjun says. He checks his watch and gasps, jumping from his seat. “Sorry, I have to go now, I agreed to meet Minhee in the library so he could explain some math questions to me. I’ll talk to you again after school.”

“See you later then,” Seongmin says, waving as Hyeongjun starts to sprint out of the cafeteria, lunchbox in hand.

Alone again, Seongmin goes back to his food, munching slowly while thinking about what colour scheme to go for this time.

* * *

Someone slides into the seat Hyeongjun was previously occupying and Seongmin looks up. “Hey,” Taeyoung says. Seongmin tries his best to maintain a straight face.

“Hi,” Seongmin replies plainly, choosing to look down at his food and continue eating instead of asking why Taeyoung is here.

Taeyoung doesn’t say anything for a while, and Seongmin almost starts wondering whether he’d already left. Then Taeyoung holds something out in front of him. “This is yours, right?”

Seongmin glances up, spotting the bookmark he’d lost yesterday in Taeyoung’s hand. “Yes, it is,” he says slowly. With his free hand, Seongmin takes it back, running his thumb over the glossy material. “Thanks for giving it back,” he mumbles.

“No problem.”

Silence looms over them again, but not for long because Seongmin quickly remembers exactly how he’d lost the bookmark. “Listen, don’t you dare tell anyone what happened yesterday,” he warns, looking Taeyoung right in the eye now.

“What?” Taeyoung blinks. “What am I not supposed to be telling anyone about?”

“Wait...you didn’t see?” Seongmin’s jaw drops. “Okay, never mind then!” he exclaims. “You didn't hear that!”

“Okay…” Taeyoung replies, brows furrowed in confusion. He turns to stare out the window next to them, perhaps appreciating the view outside. Seongmin leaves him be.

As he munches on a baby carrot, Seongmin remembers that he doesn’t put his name on his bookmarks. “Hold on, if you didn’t see me drop it, how did you know that this bookmark is mine?”

“Oh, I recognised your art style after I picked it up. Your drawings have a distinct style and I think I’ve seen you draw rabbits quite often too, so it didn’t take long for me to connect the dots,” Taeyoung explains. He pushes his hair back from his face, making Seongmin take notice of that obnoxious rainbow-coloured streak of hair again.

“Ohh…” Seongmin mumbles. Much to Seongmin’s chagrin, Hyeongjun always manages to be correct in some way or another. He finishes the last of his rice and puts his chopsticks down.

“Well, I’ll be going now. If it’s dirty or anything then I’m sorry, some people might have stepped on it before I found it.” Taeyoung gets up, but Seongmin grabs his sleeve. Puzzled, Taeyoung turns to look at him.

“You’re not going to ask for anything back?” Seongmin asks.

Taeyoung looks taken aback at this question. “Why would I? It doesn’t make sense for me to, all I did was return your bookmark to you.”

“Ah...true,” Seongmin mutters, embarrassed but also amazed. He must be too used to people trying to ask him for various things. “Sorry, my friend was convinced you wanted to ask me to help you with your council president campaign, so I automatically assumed you would ask about that.” He looks away, flustered. If he could slap himself right now, he would.

Taeyoung laughs. “No, I get it, it’s fine. I didn’t think of doing so, actually.”

“Well, do you want my number then?” Seongmin finds himself asking, still feeling like he should return the favour in some way. Or maybe he just wants to talk to Taeyoung more, but he banishes this thought immediately. “If you have questions about anything design-related, you could send me a text.” He drags his fingers through his hair, hoping that didn’t sound awkward.

Taeyoung looks surprised, but accepts the offer right away. “That would be quite reassuring,” he says, taking his phone out and unlocking it before passing it to Seongmin.

Seongmin enters his contact details, then returns the phone. “There. Sorry for the inconvenience about the bookmark, by the way.”

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” Taeyoung says, offering a nod and a smile.

Knowing that there’s nothing left to do now except return the tray and go back to class, Seongmin stands too. “I hope your campaign sees good results,” he says, making eye contact with Taeyoung again.

“Thanks,” Taeyoung says. “See you around then.” He walks off, and Seongmin just watches him until he disappears from sight, before picking his tray up.

While taking the stairs back to his classroom, Seongmin confirms to himself that Taeyoung is definitely better than he expected. Too bad he can’t say the same about that protagonist.

* * *

When they meet again after school, Seongmin tells Hyeongjun that he’s decided to go with a rainbow colour scheme for the next newsletter, but doesn’t tell him why. Hyeongjun’s bound to find out what happened with Taeyoung sooner or later anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I welcome kudos and any feedback including thoughts about this fic and how I can improve!


End file.
